


Covered By Roses Redux

by LastCorsair



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21534550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LastCorsair/pseuds/LastCorsair
Summary: In their dorm room at Atlas Academy, Ruby Rose wakes before the dawn to find a rose on her pillow and a trail of rose petals leadiing out the door.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 78





	Covered By Roses Redux

**Author's Note:**

> My first new work since beginning my migration to A03, and I hope you like it. It was written in three hours and hasn't had a lot of editing so please be kind.

Ruby’s eyes flashed open. She sat up on one elbow, her head searching the unfamiliar room, her heart pounding, mind racing, wondering where she was, what had awakened her. _Oh, that’s right. I’m in our dorm room at Atlas Academy._ Being stuffed into a dorm room like they were still students at Beacon? Bah. They’d survived the Fall of Beacon, battled their way across Mistral, recovered the Relic of Knowledge from the vault under Haven Academy, fought a giant robot just so they could steal an Atlesian airship, and then taken down a Leviathan. Well, okay, they’d had some help with the Leviathan. Okay, a lot of help, from said giant robot.

With a sigh, she scanned the room, looking for who or whatever had roused her before dawn. Nope, nothing stirring, nothing out of place. The blue-gray curtains were wide open like Blake liked them, the light creeping across the blue-gray carpet and showing the blue-gray walls clearly. Okay, that was way too many uses of the words blue-gray to describe one room, even if it was different shades of blue-gray. Come to think of it, Atlas Academy as a whole could do with some more color. Had whoever decorated the place been color-blind or just boring beyond belief? That’s it, today’s mission was adding some color to their current abode. Yeah, it might be against the rules for students, but they weren’t students. Or at least not Atlas Academy students. She was still sorta their leader after all.

And that’s when Ruby saw it.

Sitting on Ruby’s pillow, right next to where her head had been resting just a second ago, was a single white rose sitting on a card. Carefully Ruby reached out and picked up the rose, giving it a gentle sniff. What the heck? Was this some misplaced romantic gesture from one of the students? Okay, yeah, she was a couple of years younger than the others and probably looked like she should still be attending a Hunstman’s academy, but Ruby was a fully-fledged Huntress now, licensed and everything. It’d be kinda weird dating somebody she barely knew who was still in school.

With a sigh, the silver-eyed girl picked up the card, bracing herself for whatever terrible or borrowed poetry or bumbling declaration of love hid inside. Nope, they’d kept it simple. _Please meet me in the garden,_ written in an elegant and flowing script. Ruby giggled. The only other person she’d ever met with handwriting that pretty was Weiss. Whoever it was had really gone all-out. As false dawn was starting to creep through the windows, she could see a suggestive trail of red and white rose petals leading toward the door. Yeah, somebody was seriously smitten with her. Well, it’d be kinda rude to ignore them if they’d gone to all this trouble. Ruby would just have to do her best to let them down gently. Quietly she slid out of bed and started pulling clothes out of her dresser. Thank the Maidens they’d managed to get something to wear beside her combat outfit.

That thought made Ruby stop for a moment. Dad hadn’t exactly been strict about her and Yang’s upbringing when it came to religious matters, but even so, some things had managed to stick. Finding out the truth behind some of the old legends and tales, though, it changed how she saw some things. Well, time enough for that later.

Across the room, she could see her sister and Blake curled up next to each other. They’d been talking quietly when Ruby went to bed and probably just fallen asleep without thinking about it. Ruby smiled as she crept over to Blake’s bed. She didn’t want to jinx it, but Yang and Blake had been getting pretty close, hadn’t they? It might have been her imagination on that first mission for Ironwood, but this was the fourth or fifth time she’d caught them cuddled up together. And they must have been getting pretty comfortable with each other if they’d managed to fall asleep together. Or just massively tired. Quickly and quietly she pulled the cover off Yang’s bed and laid it over the bumblebee pair. Maybe Ruby wouldn’t tell whoever it was that left the rose for her no so fast after all. Maybe.

Boots in hand, Ruby stepped out of their dorm room, only to roll her eyes as she realized that the trail of rose petals continued down the hallway in the direction of the garden. “Oh good grief,” Ruby muttered as she crouched down to pull on her boots. “Yeah, I appreciate the gesture, but this is a bit much for somebody you barely know. I mean, our room isn’t that far from the garden, but it’d take, what, three or four bushes’ worth of rose petals, wouldn’t it? And why did Ironwood get cheap about his locks?”

“Is something wrong, Ruby?”

“Gah! Penny! What are you doing here?” Ruby flailed for a minute, startled by the robot girl. “No, not wrong really. Somebody got into our room and left this rose and a note on my pillow, and then there’s this trail of rose petals, probably all the way to the garden. It’s just kind of a bit much just to get someone’s attention. And then there’s how they got into our room.” Okay, Ruby might be a little nervous about all this if she was word vomiting like that.

“I see,” Penny answered, a smile dimpling her cheeks. “Well, it looks like someone likes you. And this is a grand romantic gesture, or at least I think so. I don’t know very much about romance, because, well.” The robotic girl bonked herself on the head, making a metallic _donk-donk_ sound. “But I suppose you should at least talk to whoever it is. They have gone to a not-insignificant amount of trouble to express their interest in you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know, it’s probably some random student with more money than sense.” The idea that maybe it was an _instructor_ flickered across her mind but Ruby shook her head, hoping that wasn’t the case. An instructor could probably afford the rose petals and could probably override the lock to get into their room, but Ruby hoped Ironwood wouldn’t hire anyone who would do that kind of thing. Besides, it’d be creepy dating someone old enough to be her dad.

Well if it was one of the instructors, Ruby was going to have a few words with Ironwood in a hurry. With the perpetrator in tow whether they liked it or not. Like a lot of Huntsmen, Ruby was stronger than she looked. In her case a lot stronger. Crescent Rose wasn’t light after all!

Penny made a throat-clearing noise, gesturing down the hall. “Well, who knows, they might surprise you in a good way.”

Now Ruby was suspicious. Penny didn’t need to breathe after all, which meant the noise was doubly on purpose. “Penny, what do you know about whoever did this?”

“I have no idea who this is, I simply think this is wonderfully romantic,” the robotic girl answered, then hiccuped.

Bingo. Ruby wondered if Penny had figured out yet that she hiccuped when she lied. Was it an accident, her software compensating, or something her father had added on purpose? It didn’t matter. Ruby crossed her arms, one hand still clutching a boot. “Penny, I know you know. Now spill.”

“I promised not to tell, Ruby. And I should keep my promises to my friends, correct? But I do not think you will be too angry when you find out who it is.” Penny smiled again, even wider this time.

“Fine, I’ll go see who it is. But if they’re creepy, I’m coming after you with fridge magnets. Lots of fridge magnets.” Which was kinda mean, because Penny didn’t like being reminded she was an android, but Ruby was kinda annoyed at Penny for not telling her who it was.

Both boots on now, Ruby marched down the blue-gray on blue-gray corridors of Atlas Academy. For a hot second, she wondered how much trouble she’d get into if she handed out free paintball guns for Spirit Week. Wait, did Atlas Academy do Spirit Week? She wasn’t sure. Signal had done it, and so had Beacon, but Atlas was so serious it was painful. Well, it’d probably get her in a lot of trouble and be super-expensive. But it would be worth it.

She stopped at the doors to the garden. Well, everyone called it a garden, but it was more like an enormous dome-shaped greenhouse. It just held, okay, a garden instead of fruits and vegetables and stuff. Which was great because this place needed some color.

And now Ruby knew she was avoiding thinking about who she might find inside. It could be, well, anyone. Well, not Blake, obviously, she was still curled up with Yang. Jaune, maybe? Nah, not his style, if his guitar-playing for Weiss was a sample. And not Ren or Nora.

With a sigh, she pushed the doors open, following the trail of red and white petals inside. At least they were consistent. It led down one of the paths, past some benches and trees and flower beds, stopping at… “Oh,” was the first thing that popped out of Ruby’s mouth when she saw who was waiting for her.

Standing in front of a fountain in the middle of a small circle of petals, more nervous than Ruby could ever remember seeing her, hands clutching a single red rose, was Weiss. “H-hello, Ruby,” the white-haired girl said.

Okay, the stammering was hella cute. “H-hey, Weiss,” Ruby answered, not sure what else to say.

The two of them stood there for a moment before Weiss spoke. “I, um, I suppose this must be unexpected, but I wanted to make my feelings clear. I started realizing that my feelings toward you were something more than friendship a couple of weeks ago. It, it took me some time to work up the courage to express them and decide how to do so. Please don’t be angry,” Weiss added nervously.

“I’m not angry, Weiss,” Ruby said with a laugh. “Just… surprised. I, um, I didn’t expect to find you at the end of the trail. “Although the red and white rose petals made a lot more sense now.

Weiss tilted her head to one side, her eyes narrowing. “And just who were you expecting to find?”

“Eh, I don’t know, probably some student, or maybe one of the instructors we’ve been working with.” Ruby was surprised to find a smile spreading across her face. “I’m really glad it was you, though.”

“That makes me very happy, Ruby.” Weiss took a deep breath, visibly steadying herself. “So…?”

Ruby called on her Semblance, dashing forward and taking Weiss’s hand in hers with a smile. “So I think... I think I’m kinda interested. You’re my best friend after all, and kinda awesome.”

Weiss looked down at Ruby’s hand grasping hers, her heart speeding up a little. “I used to think you were a clumsy dolt, but you’ve grown. And so have I, now that I’m free to be myself, not my father’s songbird. When we were fighting on the train and you grabbed my hand to keep me from falling, that moment seemed to last forever. And that’s when I realized how I felt about you.” She gave Ruby’s hand a hesitant squeeze, her heart going even faster when Ruby squeezed back.

“So… what do we do now?” Ruby asked nervously.

“I, um, a date? Breakfast? I took the liberty of researching nearby restaurants, places students wouldn’t go.”

“Breakfast sounds good, but I don’t have much money,” Ruby admitted.

Weiss blinked. “You did realize Ironwood is paying us, right?”

“He is?”

“Yes. Check your scroll; it’s not extravagant but we can easily afford breakfast.”

“Great.” Ruby smiled at Weiss, her silver eyes twinkling. “Think it could cover some shopping later? I, um, I was thinking a bit ago that I could use some more clothes besides my combat outfit.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea. We can make a day of it.”

Still holding hands, the two of them wandered their way toward the airship port, neither one of them wanting to surrender the physical contact that somehow symbolized their tenuous relationship. They walked in silence, both of them stealing glances at the other and looking away embarrassed when they were caught looking.

They were almost to the port when a sharp voice called out to them, “And just where do you two think you’re going?”

“Breakfast?” came from Ruby at the same time as Weiss was saying, “On a date.”

“A d-” Winter stopped, looking from one to the other in confusion before noticing they were holding hands. “I see. Well, General Ironwood wanted me to round up your group for a surprise training exercise, but it looks like we’re going to be short today. After all, if I can’t find the two of you, then I can’t tell you, can I?” She nodded at her sister before very deliberately giving Weiss a wink.”

Before Ruby could say anything, Weiss nodded back. “I haven’t seen you since last night at dinner, after all. But why? And thank you, Winter.”

Winter laughed, the first time Weiss had heard her sister laugh since they’d reunited in Atlas. “I’ve had my own share of romance, Weiss. Nothing has worked out so far, but I wish you luck.” She gave Ruby a stern look. “Be kind to my sister, Miss Rose. That’s all I ask.”

Ruby smiled. “Wouldn’t dream of doing anything else, Winter. And, um, thanks.”

Still hand in hand, Ruby and Weiss headed off.


End file.
